Due to request, here is the story of our engagement...
It really should come as no surprise that our engagement was unique. We were unorthodox from the get-go. My first real experience with Rick was when I had just turned sixteen. Some friends and I were hanging out at the park downtown. I had seen Rick on occasion. (He was the only 6'2", bearded, long- haired boy in our sophomore class, or the entire student body for that matter). But quite honestly, I didn’t even know his name. We were standing around on the grass talking about who knows what, when my friend Jim drove up in the car he had just gotten. You Nerds know the car of which I speak...the lipstick hanging from the rear view mirror...
Now let me digress a bit to the minds of two rather awkward 16 year old boys. Jim had a car. What do boys who have cars do? They pick up chicks. Apparently, my husband-to-be was a wee bit literal.
So next thing I know, Rick picks me up, throws me over his shoulder and into the back of the car. Now, if I hadn’t known that Jim was a nice guy (in spite of the lipstick mirror) I might have panicked. Especially since Rick sat in the back with me, holding my hands behind my back and laughing like a maniac.
I promise. I’ll get to the part where he becomes a viable marriage partner.
The ride ended up being a lot of fun. The music was good, the boys were hilarious, and I was returned to my group of friends after a few trips around the block, completely unharmed. Other memories of Rick in high school were really not much different. He was crazy. A great skim boarder. Cool hair. He taught me how to rappel. He nearly broke a rib when he gave me a hug the night before he was set apart for his mission. But honestly, we never went on a single date.
While he was on his mission, and I was in college, we wrote back and forth. No wait, I should clarify. I wrote to him. I’m not sure if “Hey, how’s it going, eh? The mission is good. The gospel is true. Love, Elder Rick.” really counts as letter writing. But it did require addressing an envelope and placing it in the mail box, so it counts for something. I was dating another guy, so our writing was in no way preparation for our getting married. In fact, I had a dream about being at my own wedding reception, and looking up to see who the groom was and it was, in fact, Rick...and I thought it was so hilarious, that I wrote and told him about it. I know what you are thinking...way to freak a missionary out! But he thought it was just as funny as I did. We both knew it was NEVER going to happen.
Flash forward to his homecoming talk. I seriously can’t remember the subject of his talk, but I do remember how it made me feel. Like I wanted to be a better person. And I figured that was a pretty good indication of what a real relationship might be. It was then and there that I thought he would make a good husband. Not for me, of course. For some lucky girl.
Famous last words.
Flash forward again to Christmas break, a mere four months later. I was back home visiting for the holiday, and Rick and I went on a rock climbing date and out to dinner. We went to Mesquite to meet one of his mission companions. We went to the ranch for the New Years festivities. And that night was our first kiss. Yep, at the stroke of midnight while someone was sending off fireworks. Super romantic. Well, as romantic as you can be when you’re dressed like this!
Yeah, I was wearing pleather pants and a leather jacket, and he was wearing a shimmery, silky shirt with dragons all over it. Oh. Yeah. Baby. And why YES! my hair was rather spiky that day. It was a total blast. We were some of the few who were not drinking at that party, and yet to see us dance and laugh, you would have assumed we were the most drunk. Love rocks.
The next few months were rather complicated. I still lived 300 miles away, so we called it quits. I graduated and moved back home, so we started up again. He broke it off because he thought he wasn’t ready. But he still wanted to hang out every.single.day. So I told him that he needed to get lost. For real. It wasn’t working out. I couldn’t hang out with him and not be falling for him. So he saw reason, and gave in. Some might say I manipulated him into being with me. It really wasn’t like that. I honestly thought he would walk away. He didn’t. We were inseparable after that. June 16th, 2000.
It was pretty obvious pretty quickly, that we were meant to be together. I remember watching lightning storms and talking about the most random and the most deep topics, all in the same moment. I remember reading scriptures together, and watching him fall asleep as soon as a movie was turned on. I remember his bringing me my favorite ice cream when I had a migraine.
And after every date, I would go home and talk about the events to my best friend Rachael. She was totally there for me. She listened to all my gooey lovey goofiness and reveled in it, because Rachael is a romantic sap. Perfect roommate for a girl who was totally head over heels. She didn’t mind hearing about it. Or at least she was kind enough to pretend she didn’t.
OKOK, so I really am getting to the engagement part. Rick and I had looked at rings, but he was a traditionalist, so he didn’t want me to see exactly what he had picked out until the big day, so I was left waiting and wondering when it was going to happen. I also knew that Rick had teamed up with Rachael (remember the romantic sap roommate) on planning the perfect engagement. Due to the fact that Rachael was involved, I pictured a trail of rose petals, cryptic poetic stanzas leading me to a romantic overlook, where he would be waiting in a suit and tie, and a ring box. However, I forgot that Rachael, while incredibly romantic, knew me well enough, and was enough of a nut herself, to know that the finale scene from The Bachelor was not really my style. Although I am not quite sure how rose-romantic turned to swashbuckling epic. Yes, my friends, our engagement is one that will go down in history.
October 16th, 2000. We were (supposedly) meeting
Tommy and Kristi out at the ranch. Only when we got there, no one was to be found. We walked out on the deck to “wait.” Rick held on to the railing on the deck and said, “This could be the deck to my pirate ship, don’t you think?” Really, what I was thinking was something to the tune of, “OK, whatever you say, dude.” And I said something akin to that.
“No seriously, don’t you think I would make a good pirate?,” he asked and put his arms out as if to prove his point.
I remember kissing him and telling him that pirates didn’t have dimples.
“Well,” he said, closing one eye, “How about now?”
“Nope, still too cute to be a pirate!”
So he gets down on one knee and says, “Well, pirates have one leg, what about now?”
Yes, people, at this point I was realizing what was happening. And I just kept thinking, “no, he’s not going to ask me to marry him while pretending to be a pirate. Not even Rick would do that.”
Oh ye of little faith, he would.
I told him that he still didn’t look much like a pirate, playing dumb.
“I know, pirates have treasure! Do you want to see my treasure?” And he pulled out the most beautiful ring, and then...
prepare yourselves...
He said, “Argh! Will you marry me, matey?”
Yep, it’s true. He took it all the way to the bank.
I guess at that point I was doing more than playing dumb because he had to ask me three times before I finally answered him that YES! I would marry him. And we hugged and kissed, and I finally managed to squeak out, “Tommy and Kristi aren’t coming, are they?”
Now, for all of you that are gasping in horror and feeling bad for me... Don’t bother. I love my engagement. Never fear. We went downstairs and he turned on some romantic music, and we danced until it was dark outside, and he whispered promises to me. Promises that still give me chills. And promises that he has kept. There was plenty of romance. And there is also a great story. And I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Well, maybe he could have left off the Matey at the end...
We were married on December 16th, 2000. Here we are, 71/2 years, three kids, two degrees, three apartments and one house later...standing on the very deck where he proposed. Thanks
Amy, for taking the picture!
So, do you think he's learned his lesson? On the way home in the car, Rick said:
